Derby Talk

Derby Talk is a forum for Pinewood Derby, Awana Grand Prix, Kub Kar Rally, Shape N Race Derby, Space Derby, Raingutter Regatta and other similar races where a child and an adult work together to create a race vehicle and a lot of fun and memories

Wow! Stephen I told you there would be more chime in to help you out!
I'm glad for it.. were all for helping you out with your Lightning McQueen car from speed to design.

Stephen , after reading your post needing help last night .
I felt very compelled to share with you in photos how you can make this car design just by using a photo of it .

Here is a design I found on my I phone that I'll be using to draw out the car design on paper using the kit block to do so.

Before I start I'm going to show you two kit block types and where the axle notches locations could play a role in your chosen design.
The top block is from the kit type you said you'll be racing.. the next below is a BSA kit block see where the axles notches are between the kit types?

Using your kit block and a sheet of paper trace around the block and be sure to mark out the axle slots as well.
It should look like this when your done tracing the block.
Next take your wheels and place them on your pattern looking threw the wheel bores where the axles go in.
Line them up on your marked out notches on the pattern and trace your wheels all the way around them.

I'm going to share more pic's with you in several posting instead of one long one!

This is amazing and exactly what I needed! I am so appreciative of all your'e help!

Stephen,
Last night I left off showing you what the basic car shape would look like with the fenders attached to the car block.

(You know how you said you would like to have some speed to your car as well?)

Well before you glue the fenders to the car and start shaping it some more.
You'll want to weigh it and all the parts on a scale to see where your at for weight!
( This is just the thing with full fender cars the wood weight is heavy!)
And where the light weight balsa fenders are helpful in design.
Just check out the photo below and where this car design is at for a total weight so far.
As you can see I'm at 4.1 oz with all the parts on the scale.. so that's 0.8 more that's needed for a total of 5.0 oz.
That's not very much ballast weight to push this car down the track!
So in this design will need to remove as much wood weight as we can so more ballast weight can be added to the car!

If you'll go back to the posting by ah8tk ( on building the King Car!)
And check out steps 46-53 you'll see some ways they remove wood weight from the car bottom side.

Being unsure of the ballast weight type you'll be using to add weight to your car.
In my photo below are some examples of some things you could do to remove wood weight in the car block before you glue the fenders on.
In the top car drawing the black circles show where you could drill holes using a 25/64 dill bit and lead wire for weights.
The boxed area seen with cut out in red.. is an area you cut out.
The blue arrows show areas to where you could also remove wood weight by drilling holes from the underneath side of the car block.

(Note: the cut out and drilled out areas will need some type of a covering to keep from causing drag in the car race day!)
For this you could use chrome H vac tape.. it's used for taping off air ducts on ac unit's. sold in hardware stores like Home Depot.
It will also add some weight to the car as well..

Middle car drawing the black areas show how you could change up your weight pockets.
The red box area is the cut out area as the one above.. and the blue arrows drilled out areas in the front end.

Bottom car drawing shows an area you could drill a hole in and thread a coping saw blade threw and cut out leaving a bottom in the car.

From there read your rules very close to find out what you can or cannot do to improve the speed of your car .
Thing's like a longer wheel base .. or do you have to use the slots in the kit block or can you drill axle holes!
Or can you use light weight wheels and bent axles to set the car up to rail ride.

( If your unsure about your race rules ask your race chairman before you try any of these speed tip's in your design.)

From there you can use the search bar in the up-er right of the screen to find all kinds of topics that talk all about it!
And I'm sure more will chime in to help you out as well..

Best of luck Stephen.
Whoda.

Sorry if I'm being a bother , but I have another question. I have asked our race chairman about the rules and she has not responded yet. My question is though, is it really necessary for me to drill new axle holes, have a longer wheel base, bend the axles and rail ride? I have done this in the past and it has been more of a detriment and not a help. Also, the tools are kinda expensive.

Another question is how can I get the decals and decal paper for Lightning McQueen and can I use any printer to do this?

And where can I get that wood for the fenders?

Thanks for all you guys' help! It has been phenomenal and I really appreciate it!

To answer some of your questions.
It is not necessary to drill new axle holes if your car has the axle slots and rules say they must be used.

Most fast cars all ride on 3 wheels and rail ride.
There are different ways to set your car up.
And I know what you're saying about the tools being expensive!
A longer wheel base helps but you don't need to do this with the car design your looking to make.

For the wood and decal paper!
If you have a hobby lobby store in your area. You'll find what you need.

Stephen, this is what I did some time back for decals on some vintage style pinewood derby cars I raced for the 100th Anniversary to Scouting!
The pack I was helping at the time wanted to do a vintage style throw back race using the current style wheels and axles.
Some pic's of the cars:
Look at the number 3 on the king car it's at you! ( this was a special look I was going for on the number 3 decal on this side of the car!)

Some time's you can find pinewood derby decals for Lightning McQueen on the web.. if some one is offering them!
Like whats seen in this link:http://www.pinewoodpro.com/p/082679.html
Then there are things you can use to make your decals on the web like what is seen in the link below..
however these decals look like they are for cakes and could end up being costly!https://www.pinterest.com/pin/615585842785807462/?l=t
And then you may need some re-sizing on the copier or printer to make them fit to the size needed for your car decals.

When you cant find what your looking for in the way decals because of cost for them.. or by chance you cant resize them!
Sometimes you need to look else ware for things you can use to make your own.
What i did for decals on the vintage cars above was to start looking in books about cars.
I got lucky when I found this book because of the all decals and stickers it had inside.

What i did was use my copier to make a colored copy of the decal stickers.
From there i used the water slide decal paper to make them on my copier and let the ink dry.
Then used a clear spray paint to keep the ink from bleeding off of the decal paper when soaked in water.

Here's the thing with this type of copier type decal paper:
The colored ink shows thew better with a white back ground behind them..( so there a clear back ground decal paper!)
And that's why the decals look to be faded on the vintage cars above.
Here's a link to where I got the decal paper from.https://papilio.com//

For printer decal paper with a white background for when your background paint on the car is dark and a white colored background needed
to bring out the colors in the decals.
Andy & Noah, ah8tk, points out in there( link to the building the King car) that they use a white back ground decal paper!
link to the white on white decal paper:https://www.micromark.com/White-Decal-P ... et-Printer
Heres a different link to some more of there amazing car builds.. from the movie cars
And check out what Andy said ( about the decals) when his son Noah said he wanted to build the Lightning McQueen car.http://www.maximum-velocity.com/pinewoo ... 14/02/113/

Edit:
Thanks for asking about this in a PM Stephen!
For resizing decal versions that are to large or to small for your car.. with a printer that will let you do reproduction sizes.
I like to use a proportional scale because it makes things easy to do and takes the guess work out of it to get the size right that's needed.
Before sending the decal paper sheet threw the printer!
These can be found at hobby lobby store's as well
A video on how there usedhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0puuwzI-IG8

If you'ed like send me a PM or an email with your mailing address and I'll send you a copy of the decal sheet.
Whoda.

Last edited by whodathunkit on Mon Feb 12, 2018 8:06 pm, edited 6 times in total.

Hello guys
I need your help again. I am now installing the wheels and axles and I am trying to install them straight and square to the axle hole. I have been watching some videos on how to do this and they all recommend a tool that I don't have the time to buy right now. Is there a way to do this without the tool?
Thanks for all your help!

Hello guys
I need your help again. I am now installing the wheels and axles and I am trying to install them straight and square to the axle hole. I have been watching some videos on how to do this and they all recommend a tool that I don't have the time to buy right now. Is there a way to do this without the tool?
Thanks for all your help!

Hello guys
I need your help again. I am now installing the wheels and axles and I am trying to install them straight and square to the axle hole. I have been watching some videos on how to do this and they all recommend a tool that I don't have the time to buy right now. Is there a way to do this without the tool?
Thanks for all your help!

What tools do you have at your disposal?

I have a hammer, some spare axles, card stock for wheel spacing, screwdrivers, and a lot of other stuff. What kind of tools are you talking about?
The tools they recommended online were the Pine Car Axle Slot Jig, Pine Car Wheel Alignment Tool, and the Pine Car Axle Placement Guide.

I have a hammer, some spare axles, card stock for wheel spacing, screwdrivers, and a lot of other stuff. What kind of tools are you talking about?
The tools they recommended online were the Pine Car Axle Slot Jig, Pine Car Wheel Alignment Tool, and the Pine Car Axle Placement Guide.

If you had a drill press, you could use it to push an axle into the slot, but if not, I think what I would do would be to take a throwaway axle and grip it by the head with a pair of pliers, then push it slowly into the slot, trying to keep the insertion as straight as possible and pull it back out. Then put your actual axle into the widened area you've created in the groove.

You might see if some of the other "old pros" have some advice to chime in with, though.

I have a hammer, some spare axles, card stock for wheel spacing, screwdrivers, and a lot of other stuff. What kind of tools are you talking about?
The tools they recommended online were the Pine Car Axle Slot Jig, Pine Car Wheel Alignment Tool, and the Pine Car Axle Placement Guide.

If you had a drill press, you could use it to push an axle into the slot, but if not, I think what I would do would be to take a throwaway axle and grip it by the head with a pair of pliers, then push it slowly into the slot, trying to keep the insertion as straight as possible and pull it back out. Then put your actual axle into the widened area you've created in the groove.

You might see if some of the other "old pros" have some advice to chime in with, though.